Gold-recovery device.



a. M. MINKLER.

GULD RECGVERY DEVICE. APPLICATION HLED MAY 20, I916.

Patented Jan. 29,1918;

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

G. M. MINKLER.

GOLD RECOVERY DEVICE.

APPLICATION man MAY 20. I9l6.

Patented. Jan, 29, 191&

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

entra n e rarns rariar enrich.

GEORGE M. IVIINKLER, 0F SPOKANE, WASHINGTON.

' GOLD-RECOVERY DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. as, rare.

Application filed May 20, 1916. Serial No. 98,798.

vices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in gold recovery devices and has to do more particularly with what is generally known as a first stage machine.

one of the novel features of my invention is to provide a sluice in the bottom of which is a recovery trough, there being a concentrator board provided with ribs, in advance of the trough, so as to retardthe subjacent flow with respect to the surface flow of the stream thereby catching and arresting the heavier particles and advancing them slowly for delivery into the recovery trough.

In this connection, it is a feature of my invention to render the concentrating elements adjustable both as regards their extent of incline from the horizontal and also regards the extent of space to be provided between adjacent concentrating elements.

My invention also resides in a novel form of grizzly consisting'of grizzly bars or rods arranged longitudinally of the sluice and'in such a manner as to be adjustable laterally for the purpose of diverging the discharge ends of the grizzly bars, with respect to their intake ends, to the desired extent.

Other features and objects of the invention will be more fully described in connection with the accompanying drawings and will be more fully pointed out in and by the appended claims.

In the drawings z- Figure 1 is a plan-view of one form of my device with a portion of the grizzly broken away to more fully illustrate subjacent portions.

Fig. 2 Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is'an enlarged sectional view on is a sectional view on line 2-2 of line H of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a detail outside view of one of the slulce walls. Like characters of reference designate similar parts throughout the different figures of the drawings.

As illustrated, 1 and .2 designate the side walls of a sluice through which the mineral carrying stream is caused to flow. At the intake end, the sluice is provided with a bottom 3 which terminates at 4. Below this bottom there is provided a plurality of'sockets 5 for receiving the ends of grizzly bars or rods 6. These rods are of polygonal cross section and are herein shown to be of diamond cross section. I preferablyanchor the bars by means of pins 7 in such a man nor as to dispose one of the edges of said bars uppermost, as indicated at The sockets 5 are made of suliicient increased size so as to permit the bars 5 to lit relatively loosely therein whereby the bars will be free for lateral adjustment about the pins, in a manner which will now be described. ll ear the discharge end of the device I provide a support 9 upon which the lower ends of the bars rest. This support 9, which may be suitably mounted upon the walls 1 and 2, is provided with a plurality of bolt slots 10 through which bolts 11 extend. The bars or rods 6 are provided with counter sunk bolt,

holds through which the bolts pass, and lock nuts 12 secure the bolts in adjusted positions. By reference to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the central grizzly rod is arranged coincident with. the longitudinal axis of the sluice whereas the remaining bars diverge with respect to each other and with respect to the central bar. Thus I have provided means whereby this diverging relation may be altered to suit requirements. By reason of this diverging feature I greatly reduce clogging on the grizzly and because of the disposition of the bars with one longitudinal corner edge uppermost, the amount of area exposed to action of the larger pieces of gravel is so reduced as to greatly prolong the life of the bars. Furthermore, if one of the bars should wear down, it could be reversed so as to bring as unused wearing surface into position.

Extending from the terminal 4 is a sharply inclined bottom portion 13 which lTGI'IIllIlHtQS in a lesser inclined surface 14:. Between bottom sections 14 and 15 is a plurality of concentrator elements 16, 17, 18 and 19 which are preferably in the form of boards. The upper faces of said boards are corrugated to present concentrating areas to the flow. The board 16 has concentrator ribs 20 which are arranged in the general direction of flow but which are at an acute angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the sluice. Board 17 has ribs 21 which are reversed in position with respect to ribs 20. Likewise, boards 18 and 19 have ribs 22 and 23 which are diagonally arranged in opposing directions. Thus the flow engages reversely disposed ribs in such a manner as to concentrate the gold deposited therein and retard any tendency thereof to pass along with the flow.

In addition to this retardation of the flow of fine gold caught by the concentrator boards, Irprovide further means for preventing this gold from being washed down the sluice with the flow.

As will be seen more particularly by reference to Fig. 2, the concentrator boards 16 V to 18 are spaced apart from each other gradas indicated in Fig. 3.

ually increasing distances. For instance, board 16 is spaced from section 14-, a relatiyely'narrow distance while board 17 is spaced from board 16 a relatively greater distance, and so on down to board 19. I

also" arrange the concentrating boards 16 to"19 in downwardly set relations with respect to each other, and with respect to the d rection of tfow, in such amanner as to 'provide for a somewhat precipitant over flow from one board to the other. I may also slightly incline the concentrating boards with respect to the horizontal, in the direction of flow of the stream progressing in the sluice. Between the spaces provided intervening the concentrating boards,-I pro vide troughs 24 to 28. the troughs being inclined transversely of the direction of flow,

Now it will be understood that the water level in trough 25 for instance, will normally be maintained up to the dotted line 29. The trough 25 is provided with a tubulardraw olf outlet having any suitable valve closure 31 at the end thereof. Now inasmuch as the trough will be filled up to the levels indicated, no air can enter the trough through the tubular outlet 30 therefore the gold will descend into the bottom of the trough and will be readily recovered when the trough draw oils are open. It will be understood that the remaining troughs have valve draw offs 32, 33, 34 and 35.

Now the ribs on the boards will catch the gold, even the fine flour gold, and the con tinual wash to which the gold will besubjected will tend to work the gold toward the next following trough. .The dam-like :fi ow of the water over the edge of the board onto the trough and down onto the next trough, will so agitate the level water in the trough into which it flows, that any gold carried down will immediately sink into the first trough succeeding or following the board from off which it was discharged.

The device will catch gold of the coarsest in trough 24, and finer gold particles will be successively caught in the successive troughs.

In some cases it may be desirable to vary the distances between the concentrating boards and also adjust the same toward or from the horizontal to either eliminate the slant or increase or decrease the slant, as the case may be.

In order to accomplish this feature I provide the concentrator boards with toothed racks, one of which is clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4: in connection with board 17, as indicated at 36. Adjusting spindles 37 are journaled in the sidewalls 1 and 2, one for each board, and each spindle has an adjusting pinion 38 mounted thereon for mesh e11- gagement with its respective rack. The spindle 37 is provided on the exterior of the device with a crank 39 for the rotation of the pinion 38 in order to longitudinally adjust boards 17. It will be noticed that the teeth 38 are relativelylong so as to provide for independent adjustment of the boards 17 irrespective of the shifting adjustment just described. Thus the boards may be spaced from each other to greater or less extent than shown. The remaining spindles are indicated at {10, a1 and 42, the cranks thereof being indicated at 43, 4:4- and 45.

I prefer to adjustably support or mount: the concentrator boards on the side walls 1.

and 2, and this feature is carried out by the following means.

Each board as indicated at 17, is provided at each end with credit pins 46 and 47 which are adapted to project through slots -l8 and 49, in the side walls. Washers 50 and nuts 51 serve to frictionally clamp the boards in place and the stems of pins 46 and 47 are sufficiently reduced in diameter with respect to the slots so as toprovide for up and down or lateral adjustment. If it is merely desired to shift the boards forwardly or rearwardly. the nuts 51 may merely be loosened. If it is desired to tilt the boards toward or from the horizontal, then this adjustment will be effected wholly by the nuts 51 being first unturned and then tightened up after the adjustment has been made without in any way interfering with mesh engagement of the pinions with the board racks.

7 After the material has been subjected to the successive action of the concentrator boards. the flow will descend on bottom section 15-of the sluice and discharge into a transversely inclined trough 52, to discharge to any suitable point of deposition for further treatment, if necessary.

When the water reaches the grooves intervening the concentrator board ribs. the course or direction of flow of the water in the grooves is changed with respect to the direction of the main flow. By changing the direction of this subjacent current, the subjacent current is retarded with respect to the surface current. Thus the lighter ltlt) lUh I l t) particles are rushed along by the more rapid surli'ace current and the heavier particles are slowly and gently advanced in the grooves by the subjacent current so that when these heavier particles reach the trough they will descend into the trough and not be carried past the trough.

I believe that I am the first to use a ribbed concentrator board in advance of a recovery trough in a device of this character.

It is believed that the advantages and utility of my invention will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and while I have herein shown and described one specific form of my invention, I do not wish to be limited thereto except as to such limitation as the claims may import.

I claim 1. In a gold recovery device, a substantially straight sluice having bottom concentrator boards extending across said sluice and being in spaced relation to each other longitudinally of said sluice and said boards being successively stepped downwardly in the direction of the stream, troughs between adjacent boards normally closed against outlet whereby the'water level in each trough will be normally flush with the intake edge of its adjacent lowermost board and will be be low the discharge edge of its adjacent higher board, said boards having grooves slightly obliquely disposed to the direction of flow to receive and retard progress of gold particles and cause sub-cu rent flows at a slight angle to the direction of the main or surface flow and at a reduced rate of speed with respect to the main flow, whereby retardation of the sub-currents will precipitate the slower moving precious particles to the bottom of the trough while the eddies initiated by descent of the angular sub and surface flows will float and prevent descent of the lighter particles down into the troughs, substantially as described.

2. In a gold recovery device, a substantially straight sluice having bottom concentrator boards extending across said sluice and being in spaced relation to each other longitudinally of said sluice and said boards being successively stepped downwardly in the direction of the stream, troughs between adjacent boards normally closed against outlet whereby the water level in each trough will be normally flush with the intake edge of its adjacent lowermost board and below the discharge edge of its adjacent uppermost board, the said boards having grooves slightly obliquely disposed to the direction of flow to receive and retard progress of gold particles and the adjacent boards having their grooves extending obliquely in different directions with respect to adjacent boards, the grooves receiving and retarding progress of gold particles and causing subcurrent flows at a reduced speed with respect to the main llow, whereby retardation of the sub-current will precipitate the slower moving and heavy precious particles to the bottoms of the troughs upon discharge thereinto while the eddies initiated by descent of the angular sub and surface flows into the trough will float and preventdescent of the lighter particles down into the troughs to permit the stream to carry such lighter particles down the sluice, substantially as described.

3. In a gold recovery device, a sluice hav current and retarding advancing movement of the heavier precious particles, whereby said heavier precious particles will be. pre cipitated to the bottom of the downstream trough while discharge of the angular sub and surface currents will generate eddies in the downstream trough and float the lighter particles to permit the stream to carry the latter downwardly in the sluice, substantially as described.

at. In a gold recovery device, a sluice having bottom, concentrator boards extending thereacross and being spaced apart from each other successively increasing distances longitudinally downwardly of said sluice and said boards being also stepped down wardly in said sluice in the direction of flow at successively increasing distances, a trough at each transverse edge of each board whereby the stream will successively first discharge into a trough and then onto a board, said boards having obliquelydisposed grooves extending from one trough edge to the other of said boards at a gentle angle to the direction of flow for receiving and retarding the rate of speed of heavier precious particles, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I hereby affix my signature GEORGE M. MINKLER.

Uopiea of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, 1). 0., 

